{"id":11538,"date":"2026-02-20T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=11538"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:30:00","slug":"trumps-transparent-hospital-pricing-pays-off-for-industry-but-not-so-much-for-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=11538","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Transparent Hospital Pricing Pays Off for Industry \u2014 But Not So Much for Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re going to post that, all the prices for everything,\u201d Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared at a recent event<\/a> held by the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0a bold-sounding promise, and a familiar one;\u00a0politicians from both parties have been repeating\u00a0it for years now. Both Trump\u00a0administrations\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0Biden administration\u00a0in between\u00a0\u2014\u00a0have\u00a0taken\u00a0whacks\u00a0at making\u00a0medical\u00a0prices more accessible, with the goal of empowering patients to\u00a0shop for\u00a0better deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0idea\u00a0makes\u00a0intuitive\u00a0sense. Why shouldn\u2019t you be able to compare the prices of MRI scans, for instance?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The feds\u00a0have\u00a0made some strides.\u00a0Prices\u00a0are\u00a0available, albeit in confusing or fragmentary form. But\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0one\u00a0big\u00a0problem:\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s no evidence that patients use this information,\u201d\u00a0said Zack Cooper, a health economist at Yale University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Health care is\u00a0an\u00a0inherently\u00a0complicated\u00a0marketplace.\u00a0For one thing,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not as simple as one price for one medical stay. Two babies might be delivered by the same obstetrician, for example, but the mothers could be charged\u00a0very different\u00a0amounts. One patient might be given medications to speed up\u00a0contractions; another might not. Or one might need an emergency cesarean section \u2014 one of many cases in medicine in which obtaining the service simply\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0a choice.\u00a0Plus,\u00a0the same hospital\u00a0typically\u00a0has\u00a0different contract terms with\u00a0each insurer,\u00a0making comparing prices\u00a0even more\u00a0difficult for patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead\u00a0of\u00a0helping consumers sort things out, this\u00a0federally mandated\u00a0price data\u00a0largely\u00a0has\u00a0become\u00a0a\u00a0tool\u00a0for\u00a0providers and insurers, looking for intel about their competitors\u00a0\u2014\u00a0so they can use it at the negotiating table in a quest for more\u00a0advantageous\u00a0rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use the transparency data,\u201d\u00a0said Eric Hoag, an executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, noting that the insurer wants to make sure\u00a0health care\u00a0providers\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0being paid\u00a0substantially\u00a0different rates.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0\u201cto make sure that we are competitive, or, you know, more than competitive against other health plans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For all those tugs-of-war,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not clear these policies have had much of an effect\u00a0overall.\u00a0Research shows that transparency policies can have mixed effects on prices, with\u00a0one 2024 study<\/a>\u00a0of a New York initiative finding a marginal increase in billed charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Price\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0the only piece of information negotiations\u00a0hinge\u00a0on. Hoag said Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota also considers quality of care, rates of unnecessary treatments, and other factors. And sometimes negotiators feel they keep up with their peers \u2014 claiming a need for more revenue to match competitors\u2019\u00a0salaries, for example.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hoag said doctors and other\u00a0care\u00a0providers often look at the data from comparable health systems and say,\u00a0\u201c\u2018I need to be paid more.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n

This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re going to post that, all the prices for everything,\u201d Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared at a recent event held by the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington. It\u2019s\u00a0a bold-sounding promise, and a familiar one;\u00a0politicians from both parties have been repeating\u00a0it for years now. Both Trump\u00a0administrations\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0Biden administration\u00a0in between\u00a0\u2014\u00a0have\u00a0taken\u00a0whacks\u00a0at making\u00a0medical\u00a0prices more accessible,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}